Study Guide for the Mississippi State U. S. History State Test

All parties agreed that the United Nations needed to be established. It was to replace the League of Nations and its mandate was to keep the peace in the world. All member nations were part of the General Assembly and 11 countries sat on the Security Council where the real power was. Five of the seats on the Security Council are permanent seats which are Great Britain, United States, Soviet Union, France, and China each having veto power.

On April 12, 1945 FDR dies and his Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes President. Truman was not prepared for becoming president because he had never been involved in major foreign policy discussions. Truman did not trust the Soviets and he especially did not trust Stalin. It was here that Truman told Stalin that the U.S had developed a weapon of extraordinary power and Stalin casual told him that he knew. Soviet spies had already told Stalin this. Stalin was worried about the U.S. new military advantage.

The Soviets and the U.S had conflicting postwar goals. The U.S. had fought to bring democracy to the nations of Europe and Asia and they hoped to see these realized at the end of World War II. A free world would provide trade and markets for U.S. industries. The Soviets on the other hand has as its goal the creation of a buffer zone between it and Europe. They made satellite nations out of the Eastern European nations it had liberated from German control and used its military to dominate them for the next seventy years. Stalin refused to allow the Soviet Union or its satellite nations to participate in the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. Also they were not allowed to partake in the Marshall Plan to help rebuild Europe. Stalin used force to keep the satellite nations in line. Soviet troops put down rebellion and helped to keep communist regimes in power in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Germany would remain a divided nation with a divided capital for the next 70 odd years.

When Winston Churchill made a speech at a U.S. college and said that Europe was divided by an Iron Curtain it set the tone for the Cold War. The lines were drawn and sides were created. Battles would be fought on many different fronts many of them not on the battle fields. Developing nations would become pawns in this war and there the battles would be fought.

The policy of Containment was put forth by a U.S. diplomat assigned to the Soviet Union. George Kennan was the author of this policy. In a telegram to the U.S. State Department he proposed the U.S. contain communism to nations where it already existed and that by doing so communism would eventually be unable to sustain itself and go bankrupt and collapse. This is the policy that the U.S. followed.

Another policy from this era was the Truman Doctrine. Truman in a speech stated that the U.S. would aid any nation that was fighting communist insurrectionist and help insurrections in communist countries to win freedom. These two doctrines would lead the United States to become involved in many controversial conflicts around the world during the Cold War.

The Cold War Heats Up

The Marshall Plan

After World War Two Western Europe’s economy was devastated, whole cities were destroyed, people did not have jobs because of factories being destroyed by bombing raids during the war. The field was ripe for communist organizers to come in and create communist governments in Western Europe. To prevent anymore countries from becoming communist Secretary of State George Marshall developed a plan to help the nations of Europe to rebuild their economies and put people back to work. When people have jobs, homes, and families they are less likely to follow communist doctrine. It was believed that by aiding these European nations it would create strong democracies and provide markets in which the U.S. could sell its goods. The Soviet Union and its satellite nations were invited to participate in this plan but Stalin refused to let any Eastern European nation participate fearing that it would weaken communism. The U.S. gave European nations some $13 billion dollars to rebuild their nations and economy.

After the war the allies could not agree on what to do with Germany so the U.S., Great Britain, and France joined their zones together and created the Nation of West Germany the soviets created the Communist nation East Germany. Berlin the capital of both nations was also divided into West Berlin and East Berlin was actually located in Communist Germany. The Soviets did not want the Democratic government of West Germany located within East Germany’s borders so Stalin blockaded West Berlin. The only way for anything to get into West Berlin was through a narrow air corridor. The Soviets hoped that the allies would pull out of West Berlin and that they would then just take over. The U.S. set up flights into West Berlin that brought everything that the city needed to survive. Everything from food to gasoline, clothes to books, toys to candy and much more was flown in to keep the city running eventually the Soviets realized that the allies were not going to leave and they opened the city back up.

In response to this growing tension between the West and East the Western democracies created a security organization called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization whose purpose was to protect each other from a military invasion. An attack on one would be considered an attack on all. The Soviets responded a year later to this organization with the Warsaw pact made up of the Soviet Union and its satellite nations.

Other Events that Heated up the Cold War

In 1949 the Soviet Union exploded it first atomic bomb and the nuclear arms race was on. This began an era where the world feared nuclear holocaust. Also in 1949 the communist in China overthrow the democratic government which had fled to the island of Taiwan. This caused the Americans to fear communism even more. People were concerned that spies were giving secrets to the soviets and Congress passed the Loyalty program where new government employees had to be investigated by the FBI to insure that they were loyal to the U.S. and not a member of the communist party. For many people just being accused of supporting communism was detrimental to their job security. People lost their jobs because no one wanted to be associated with a communist. Even though they may have been eventually cleared the damaged was already done.

Congress in response to the new red scare created the House Un-American Committee (HUAC) to begin a postwar probe on communist infiltration of government and Hollywood. In September and October of 1947 HUAC called a number of Hollywood producers, writer, and actors to Washington and accuses them of being communist. There were ten actors who refused to cooperate with this committee and invoked their constitutional right not to speak. They were fined and jailed some up to a year. Hollywood fearing the HUAC created a blacklist barring these actors from working in Hollywood. Just being accused of being a communist often lead to people losing their jobs and homes even if they are later cleared the damage to their careers and reputations was already done.

Another event that fueled this paranoia was two spy cases that came to trial at this time. The first was the case of Alger Hiss who had been a prominent leader in the state department before he left government. He was accused of being a spy for the communist. In 1950 he went to prison for four years for lying to a federal grand jury. He could not be sentenced for spying since it too late to try him for those crimes. The second case was the Rosenberg case. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were accused of selling the secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviets. Ethel was a housewife and Julius worked on the atomic project. They were found guilty and executed for their crimes. Many historians debated over the years if the individual in these two cases were guilty but secret documents later uncovered at the end of the Cold War showed that they were.

One of the areas where communism expanded after World War II was in Asia. In the mid-1920s the Nationalist part in China under the leader of Jiang Kieshi took over China. The communist party was lead by Mao Zedong and he was popular with the people because of his treatment of them. In 1949 the Nationalist were forced out of China and a communist government with Mao Zedong as the leader. The Nationalist fled to the island of Taiwan where they established the democratic government of China. Communist China does not recognize Taiwan as an independent nation even to this day.

Another area where the communist and the west faced off was the Korean peninsula. At the end of World War I Japan was given several of the Pacific possessions of Germany and Korea was one of those. Koreans hoped that at the end of World War II it would once again gain its independence. What happened was that the allies never did discuss what they were going to do with the territory liberated from Japan so in Korea Japanese troops north of the 38^th parallel surrendered to Soviet forces and those south of the 38^th parallel surrendered to American forces. So what happened was that a pro American government was created south of the 38^th parallel and a communist government was established in North Korea.

Both sides in Korea dreamed of uniting the country and finally in June 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea. President Truman was alarmed by this action and called on the United Nations to do something. The Security Council voted to protect South Korea and it went through because the Soviets had walked out of the U.N. in protest of America’s refusal to allow Communist China to become a part of the U.N. and the Security Council. General John MacArthur was in charge of this action. Truman never went to congress for a formal declaration of war so it is police action not a true war.

MacArthur landed at Inchon and cut the North Korean supply lines. The North Koreans fled back across the 38^th parallel and MacArthur continued to push. The Chinese warned the Americans not come to its borders and MacArthur ignored them. The Chinese flood across the river and China was now in this war because it did now want see South Korea to win and have a democratic nation on its borders.. MacArthur was fired by Truman for disobeying orders and he was greeted back home as a hero.

Effect of the Korea War

Americans began to mistrust their government, we see a rise in the war industries as the U.S. government began to spend more and more money on military. Also people had to get used to the idea of permanent mobilization of American troops in different parts of the world to counter act the communist presence. Japan became a strategic part of the plan on how to contain communism.

This was started by a senator from Wisconsin by the name of John McCarthy. He used bully tactics to accuse people of being communist. They were usually his enemies and people who did not do what he wanted. McCarthy in 1954 began to accuse the military of harboring communist and an investigation was conducted and aired on the new media T.V. People watched in horror as they realized that most of McCarthy’s accusation had no bases. He lost his supporters and he soon faded from history.

President Eisenhower felt that the U.S. did not need to get into a shooting war with the Soviet Union so he followed the containment policy even though his Secretary of State Dulles wanted to face the Soviet Union. Also the U.S. was sending aid to France to help it keep its colony of Vietnam and when the French pulled out the U.S. sent advisors, money, and war equipment to South Vietnam. The U.S. supported South Vietnam even though its government was brutal and corrupt.

In the Middle East the United States policy was to try to lessen the influence of the Soviet influence in the region. When Israel declared itself a nation and the Arab nations attacked and Israel was able to defend itself and defeat the Arab nations. The U.S. supported Israel and the Soviet Union supported the Arabs. President Eisenhower announced his doctrine which said that the U.S. would use force to safeguard the independence of any country or group of countries in the Middle East requesting aid against communist aggression.

The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) caused the overthrow of several countries regimes that were not favorable to the U.S. also the U.S. created the Organization of American States (OAS). This time period and the U.S. heavy handed tactics has caused many Latin America Countries to not trust the U.S.

The conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States caused both countries to try and outdo each other in the production of war machines and weapons. Both countries began to stockpile nuclear arms. And the U.S. began to practice the policy of Brinkmanship. This is a policy in which the U.S. had to convince the Soviet Union it would be willing to go to war. The soviets depended on missiles to send war heads to two the U.S. in case of war while the U.S. depended on planes to deliver its pay load. In 1957 the Soviets used one of its missiles to launch a satellite into space called the sputnik. This alarmed many in America and caused President Kennedy to call on the federal and state government to fund math and sciences so that we could send a man to the moon by the end of the 1960s. Then when the Soviets shot down the U2 spy plane it once again showed the need for the U.S. to develop its own missile program and caused the U.S. to expend considerable amounts of resources.

During the years following World War II the United States experienced one of its greatest economic expansions in its history. Corporations expanded and companies took advantage of the research and development that the war had inspired. Many new products were introduced to the civilian market that had been developed for the war effort. Some examples would be radar and computers that was introduced into the work place. Other corporations coming out of the Great Depression had learned some hard lessons and they diversified their holdings by buying companies from dissimilar fields hopping that if the economy got bad again one of their companies could help support the others. This is called a conglomerate ( a corporation made up of three or more unrelated businesses).

Another type of business form developed and became very popular and it was called a franchise. Ray Kroc developed this business model when he purchased a fast food restaurant run by two brothers in California. They had taken the idea of the assembly line and put it into the making of hamburgers and other fast food. He then sold franchises to other people. A franchise allows those who purchase them to the company’s logo, advertisement, name recognition, products, and equipment. The Corporation gets a percentage of the profits and the owner benefits from being associated with a brand name that people recognize and like. Ray Kroc purchased the right to keep the restaurant’s name McDonalds. In many ways the franchise idea helped the economy to expand but it did hurt many small businesses as the franchise system grew independent business owners were not often able to compete with them.

Technology Changes America

After the war people had money and they wanted to purchase the new products such as dishwashers, gas powered lawn mowers, and T.V. businesses rushed to produce them and the other new products. American developed a love affair with the latest and best that is still going on today. After World War II Americans fell in love with the television, the technology for TV. has been since the twenties it did not take off until after World War II. People cited TV. ability to babysit children with shows like Howdy Doody, the Mickey Mouse Club, and many others. Families enjoyed night entertainment following shows like I love Lucy and Father Knows Best. These shows helped to create an image of the perfect American Family.

After the war companies began to use computers in the businesses. When scientist at Bell Telephone Laboratories developed the transistor it revolutionized the electronic industry. No longer did companies have to depend on large space consuming vacuum tubes. Electronics could not be built smaller. Where once a computer took up a whole basement know it could sit on a desk.

A new form of power was introduced to the public in the 1950s. in 1954 the navy introduced its first nuclear powered submarine. That technology would be used by the civilian world to develop nuclear power plants to produce electricity for homes and businesses. Another area where advances were made was in medicine. Dr. Salk developed a polio vaccine and doctors started using and developing antibiotics to help fight infection and to cure people. Also doctors who served in the war began to use the skills they had developed in trauma to the civilian hospitals and advances were made in heart surgeries and other areas.

After World War II jobs in America began to shift. As more and more manual labor was taken over by machines and computers people began to train for other types of jobs. Where before the war most Americans were blue collar workers (manual labors) after World War II the job market changed and more became white collar jobs. They began to work in offices and service industries. Many found new opportunities to move up in the corporate ladder but workers had less connection to their jobs than before.

As people moved into new jobs and better pay they took opportunities to move out into the suburbs. Many men took advantage of the G.I. bill to get mortgages for new homes and to go to college. The baby boom that had began during the war continued. Men like William Levitt took advantage of the people being able to get mortgages and began to build houses using mass building techniques. This helped to keep cost down but all homes were similar and there were very little differences in house with a subdivision.

With more people moving out to the suburbs and business such as department stores following them the need for better highways arose. The suburbs were too far away for public transportation so people had to depend on their cars more. Congress passed the Federal Highway Act in 1956 to create a system of federal highways that crisscrossed the country and went from border to border and coast to coast. The idea was to help people evacuate cities in case of nuclear attack.

To purchase all these new goods people once again began to use credit. Gas companies were the first to introduce a credit card. As more and more people began to drive the companies began to issue gas cards so that people could purchase their gas on credit and pay it off later. Other business wanted to get in on this so they began to issue store cards and some banks began to issued credit cards such as the Dinners Club, American Express, Visa, and Master Card. Consumer debt rose from $8 billion in 1946 to $56 billion in 1960.

The Mood of the 1950s

Comfort and Security

The general feeling of happiness and comfort was curtailed by the threat of nuclear war. The youth of the 1950s were affected. They are called the “silent generation” because they did not seemed to be interested in the problems of the larger world. The strong economy of the 1950s allowed for more and more students to stay in school and graduate. Prior to this, male students often dropped out of school to find jobs to help support their families. But with the strong economy students could stay in school and get part time jobs. Businesses also began to target youth in advertising realizing a potential area for profit. Shows like Father Knows Best began to define the styles of the 1950s teenager. Girls were shown in bobby socks and poodle skirts and boys in letter sweaters, t-shirts and rolled up jeans. Girls collected silver and linens in anticipation of marriage soon after they graduated high school.

Adults responded to the threat of nuclear war by going back to church. The 1950s saw a resurgence of church attendance. The threat of nuclear war made everyone seek security and the church benefited from this.

The Roles of Men and Women in the 1950s

During this time period men were seen as the bread winner earning the money to take care of their families. Women played a supporting role staying home raising the children and taking care of the house. Middle class women became involved in charities and civic organizations. But some women did not want this type of life. They wanted to work so we began to see more and more women working and staying at work after marriage. Most of them held jobs such as secretaries, nurses, teachers, and clerks in stores.

The 1950s also was a time when many youth began to rebel against the morals and values of their parents. They felt misunderstood and alone. Rock and Roll became a popular musical form among the youth of the 1950s and many parents and churches opposed it. They felt that it would lead the youth to do things that the parents or church did not want them to do. Also many opposed rock and roll because of its roots in the blues and rhythm music of African America. One of the most popular entertainers of rock and roll was Elvis Presley a young man originally from Tupelo MS. Others were Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly. Another group of American youth that went against the norm was the Beatniks of the 50s. They promoted spontaneity and spirituality. Beatniks challenged traditional norms by speaking openly about sexuality and the use of illegal drugs. The Beatniks were the foreshadowers of the hippies of the next generation.

Domestic Policies of the U.S.

Peacetime Economy

During World War II most Americans were unable to access a lot of consumer goods because the nation was on war production. Once the war was over they wanted those goods and they wanted them right then. But as the industries converted back over to peacetime production inflation began to creep in. During the war workers had not receive pay increases so as prices rose wages did not. Workers demanded raise and more strikes occurred in 1946 than at any time before 1946. Because of the number of strikes Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act. This allowed the President to declare an 80 day cooling off period during which strikers had to return to work. But this act would only affect those industries that affected the national interest of the United States.

President Truman’s Fair Deal was another domestic policy of this period. Truman agreed with FDR that the government should play a more active role in securing economic justice for all Americans. At the end of the war he called for a program that would cause full employment, a higher minimum wage, greater unemployment compensation, housing assistance, and other reforms. Truman was opposed by the Southern democratic delegation to Congress and his fair deal was not as extensive as he would have liked it. He also call for the regulation for Atomic energy. At midterm elections the people were dissatisfied with the Democrats and the republicans took over both houses of Congress.

Truman was a southern boy who still had a lot of his racist beliefs that had been taught to him as a young boy. But as president Truman felt that he needed to be a president that represented all the people of the U.S. He end segregation in the military in 1948 by executive order. He was opposed by the Southern Democratic Congressional members when he attempted to have laws passed that would have address the issue of civil rights in America.

During the election of 1948 it seemed that Truman would lose the election. He was not a popular president and the southern democrats had broken away from the democratic party and form another party called the Dixiecrats. And the liberal wing of the Democratic party with Henry Wallace who headed the Progressive ticket. The Republican nominated Thomas Dewey as their candidate. With the democrat vote split three ways it seemed that the Dewey was a sure win. Truman went out and campaigned calling the 80^th republican congress the do nothing congress. Not only did he win but the democrats won back congress. Republicans frustrated at the long time control of the Democrats proposed an amendment to limit presidents to two terms. It was passed and ratified and today a person can only be president for two terms.

Dwight Eisenhower was the Republican candidate and he won the election. Ike was determined to slow the growth of the federal government and he also wanted to limit the powers of the president. He felt that the office of president had acquired too much authority under FDR during the Great Depression and WW II. However he was not interested in completing reversing the New Deal. He intended to be conservative “when it comes to money” and liberal “when it comes to human beings.” Like most republican presidents Ike favored business and felt that the government should stay out of business.

When the Soviets launched the satellite Sputnik he encouraged congress to pass regulations that would support math and sciences. In 1958 Congress responded with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as an independent agency for space exploration. Also in 1958 Congress passed the National Defense Education Act designed to improve math and science education in high schools in the United States.

Cold War

Vietnam War (1954-1975)

America’s Involvement

During the war the allies funded and supplied Ho Chi Minh who was a communist leader of the Vietnamese and the head of the Independence of Vietnam commonly called the Vietminh. After World War II France tried to maintain control over Vietnam (known under French control as French Indochina). Finally in 1954 after the French suffered a defeat they gave up and left Vietnam. In a peace settlement attended by France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. it was agreed that Vietnam would be divided along the 17 Parallel into two separate nations. Ho Chi Minh became the President of the Communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem. The Geneva agreement called for elections to unify the two countries but South Vietnam refused to follow this part of the agreement saying that North Vietnam would not hold free elections.

Since 1950 the U.S. had been providing aid to the French in Vietnam and to South Vietnam after its formation. By 1960 the U.S. had about 675 military advisors in Vietnam. When President Kennedy came into office he refused to allow another country fall to communism. Diem was corrupt and the money that the U.S. was sending to Vietnam was ending up not helping the people in into the pockets of Diem, his family, and corrupt officials in the government. The U.S. let the military now that it would not oppose a South Vietnam without Diem. In 1963 Diem was ousted and killed by a military overthrow.

After Kennedy’s assassination Johnson becomes president and he also commits to containing Communism where it already existed. But the war in Vietnam was hard to win because even though the U.S. had superior weapons and military technology we were fighting a war that we were not familiar with. The Vietcong and North Vietnamese knew the jungle and they used guerilla warfare. This drastically reduced the effectiveness of overwhelming man power, technology, and training. The Vietcong and Vietnamese dug tunnels throughout South Vietnam and they were able to move men and supplies through these tunnels. Also they were able to use the Ho Chi Minh trail to get supplies to the Vietcong. Even though the U.S. would bomb this trial and North Vietnam the U.S. was unable to effectively cut their supply line.